1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to apparatus and methods for improving the efficiency of an information server coupled with a communications network, and more specifically relates to the measurement, analysis, and optimization of content delivery over a communications network.
2. Related Art
In the competitive e-Business marketplace, a key success factor is the speed with which network based activities are conducted. Typically, potential customers, clients, and partners will go elsewhere if transactions or content are slow or unavailable. Studies show that many network based purchase transactions are abandoned because of frustration with slow response or unexpected web page behavior. For example, Jupiter Communications reported that 46% of consumers will leave a preferred web site if they experience any technical or performance problems. Therefore, e-Businesses must respond quickly to their customers' electronic requests, or risk serious financial injury.
Further evidence of the risk associated with slow transactions or content is the well known “eight second rule”, which stipulates that electronic consumers will wait no longer than eight seconds before canceling a transaction or moving on to an e-Competitor. Unfortunately, most e-Business operators and service providers are not equipped with the necessary tools to ensure a positive experience for their potential customers, clients, and partners.
In response to this need, the Network and Systems Management (“NSM”) market evolved to provide network monitoring and fault management capabilities. These key components were typically incorporated into complete frameworks and product suites that were created to enable the management of distributed systems. As management of network devices became commonplace, the industry focus shifted toward the improvement of the performance of client/server applications. The conventional frameworks did not address these pressing problems, and various discrete and single purpose niche products and solutions appeared to fill the need.
This eventually led to the emergence of the Infrastructure Performance Management (“IPM”) market, which consists of products that help information technology operators manage the infrastructure of their network based applications, products, and services. Additionally, these products help customers to gauge the performance of the network and assist in troubleshooting when problems arise. The IPM market products typically address the main aspects of the e-Business infrastructure, such as the networks (LAN and WAN), network devices (switches, routers, firewalls, & bridges), servers, applications, databases. These products also address the main parameters of Service Level Management (“SLM”), which are availability, performance, accuracy, and security.
These two competing markets have collectively produced a variety of conventional web analysis tools that are fairly immature as vendors try to meet the market need of e-Business infrastructure management. First generation tools relied on log files to present graphical views of information relating to the operation of a web site. These conventional solutions can be classified as application level logging mechanisms that monitor web site traffic. A significant drawback of this conventional approach is that it does not provide any information relating to the actual delivery of content to the potential customer, client, or partner. This conventional approach did, however, provide adequate information to understand the demographics of the web site's user base.
Second generation tools used packet sniffing techniques to measure e-Business infrastructure traffic patterns at the internet protocol (“IP”) layer. These types of conventional tools are typically focused on delivering solutions that help marketing professionals comprehend complex web traffic demographics and trends so they can more effectively provide banner ads to visiting potential customers.
Another approach used by second generation tools is to use specific test points external to the network infrastructure that periodically query the site under test. These periodic fixed queries from a limited number of test points are used to estimate site performance for the hypothetical customer who is assumed to be in the vicinity of the test point. Thus this solution does not capture the experience of an actual customer who visits the site. Furthermore, these conventional solutions only monitor specific, pre-defined pages of the target web site, allowing the particular problem page or pages to remain undetected.
An additional and very significant drawback of these solutions is that they can adversely impact the actual performance of the web site as more test locations are added in the attempt to improve accuracy. For example, a conventional system may “ping” the server computer to establish that the server is currently running and communicating. This requires the transmission of a data packet be sent to the targeted server computer, and the transmission of an acknowledgement data packet confirming receipt in response. Although this method confirms that the server computer is running and communicating, it requires the introduction of an intrusive data packet onto the network. Moreover, the acknowledgement data packet sent by the server computer to confirm receipt does not indicate whether any higher level applications are running on the server computer.
Other conventional methods may monitor log files that a server computer or an application may create. A drawback of this method is that considerable disk space and overhead may be consumed to create and maintain the necessary log files. Another conventional method involves placing an agent on the server computer or on a client computer in order to capture and analyze data. A disadvantage of this conventional solution is that it increases the workload of the processor on the server or client computer and requires constant maintenance on the part of the customer.
These conventional approaches presently overload servers, rely on hypothetical user data, introduce congestion causing traffic on the network, and produce overhead on the client or server host processor. Accordingly, the shortcomings associated with the related art have created a need for a method and apparatus that overcomes these significant problems. The present invention addresses these problems by providing a solution that has not previously been proposed.